Part VI – The Transcendent: Sri Aurobindo in the Shalagrama

[This is Part VI of The Chronicles of the Inner Chamber; readers of this series may first want to read the blog's 'Introduction' and the Matrimandir Action Committee's 'Manifesto',  Part I - Preface,  Part II, Part III, Part IV or Part V before continuing.]

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‘Without him, I exist not,
without me, he is unmanifest.’
The Mother, 6 May 1957
                                                

While the Mother’s original plan of the Matrimandir’s inner chamber defines the size of the circumscribing Shalagrama by its perfect measure (see CIC 5, p.3), much more is needed from the subtle planes to grant solidity and imperishability to the structure. The chamber cannot remain suspended with ‘supports’ only at the upper reaches of the walls, as if hanging on a clothes line! A base must exist as well as other subtle points in space to define the Divine Maya unequivocally, and to integrate inner and outer. This greater definition is provided by Sri Aurobindo through his own special symbol consisting of two triangles, ascending and descending, and an inner square. In this Chronicle we will reveal the exquisite interaction between Sri Aurobindo and the Mother displayed through sacred geometry and architecture, and their allotted tasks in the Supramental Manifestation.
The magical properties of the Shalagrama allow us to insert Sri Aurobindo’s new symbol in the form, reproduced below. This diagram is taken from The New Way, Volume 2, published by Aeon Books, (1978)1981. The dates are important in order to bring to the attention of the public the continued campaign of deception Auroville engages in, involving this most sacred of symbols. For the prevailing consciousness in Auroville nothing is sacred. Knowledge is desecrated time and again by misusing it for personal ambition, or to deceive the public. To succeed in this campaign the diagrams we will reproduce in this Chronicle, all taken from the above-mentioned publication of Aeon Books, were lifted by Mona Doctor, an Auroville architect.

From The New Way, Vol.2, p. 445
Aeon Books, 1981

This has been abetted by the powers presently ruling Auroville insofar as the same material is now carried on the Auroville official website under the link to Sacred Geometry.
Discovery of this website link, with its misuse and desecration of the Knowledge, made it imperative to give a formal structure to the Matrimandir Action Committee. Concerned individuals throughout the world could no longer remain silent. Readers of these Chronicles may verify for themselves what MAC states by logging into http://www.auroville.org/thecity/matrimandir/mm_geometry.htm [This content has been removed since posting and the link is no longer active]. At that location the viewer will discover these same diagrams but reproduced in such a manner as to give the impression (again) that the measurements are the same as in the temple, following the Mother’s original plan. Our Chronicles have already proven that this is false.
But the deception goes a step further. Viewers will note that Mona Doctor has made the following acknowledgment at the end of the article: ‘Source of figures shown in the above article is Patricia (sic) Norelli-Bachelet’s book, The Gnostic Circle.’ She has done this though fully aware that it is a wrong reference. It too is part of the campaign to mislead the public by keeping the truth hidden.  

 

The history
By letter dated 6.10.1989, Mona Doctor wrote to the author of The New Way requesting permission to use the material in Volume 2 which is reproduced here. She claimed that she was writing a thesis on the relationship between the Matrimandir and the Great Pyramid at Giza. A two-page reply was sent to her, making all the above points absolutely clear; namely, that the Pyramid and other relationships she was to write about did not exist in the Auroville Matrimandir. She was warned that unless this fact was explicitly stated in her thesis and that the diagrams and text refer only to the Mother’s original plan, with due acknowledgements, permission could not be granted.

In true Auroville fashion, Mona Doctor paid no heed. Finally, in January 1991, extracts from her thesis were published in Auroville Today, issue No. 25. Again no mention was made of the fact that the diagrams pertained only to the Mother’s original and not the Auroville Matrimandir. But not only was no such clarification given to the public, so that there would be no misrepresentation, there was no reference at all to The New Way, source of all the material she presented as her own.
When this was brought to light Mona Doctor agreed to rectify the matter in issue No. 34 of Auroville Today. A letter from her was carried in that issue in which she simply listed The New Way among several other ‘sources’, nothing specific, nothing that could lead the reader to the truth, again compounding the falsehood.
And now, to compound that falsehood even further, Auroville’s official website reproduces the very same material with this leader: ‘Mona Doctor, one of Auroville’s architects, wrote a rather remarkable graduate research thesis: it is a study on the proportions of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, compared to the proportions of Matrimandir.’
This time Mona Doctor does indeed list a ‘source’ at the end of the article-cum-interview, a book in which nothing of the above material figures! The reason is obvious. To give the correct source would lead viewers of the website to the true state of affairs as expounded in The New Way, - i.e., that nothing of these geometric relationships exists in what has been built in the Mother’s name in Auroville. They exist only in The New Way. 

The ongoing deception
When Mona Doctor wrote her first letter in 1989 asking for permission to use the material, the theme of her research was the relationship between Matrimandir and the Great Pyramid at Giza. Yet she has been careful to exclude this most remarkable correspondence of all from the official website article; that there is an exact correlation between the entry to the Great Pyramid and the ascending 15-step entry to the Mother’s chamber, according to her original plan. We reproduce the comparative diagrams from The New Way, Volume 2, Chapter 12, p. 468.

 In a superb visionary feat the Mother located the ascending entry into the room in such a manner that when the author of The New Way discovered Sri Aurobindo’s symbol in the Shalagrama several years later (1976), and the occult relationships we have described in these pages, that now defunct stairway revealed an extraordinary correspondence to the entry to the Giza Pyramid. With Sri Aurobindo’s new symbol, since its proportions are the same as the Great Pyramid, the Mother’s yogic feat has drawn ancient Egypt into her chamber. This is easily verified in the above drawings which bear the precision the Mother required to allow for these correspondences. This exact correlation involving sacred architecture, separated by thousands of kilometres and thousands of years, is one more example of the magnitude of the Mother’s visionary greatness.
However, this greatness could not be carried on the Auroville website because the public would question why that remarkable connection with the Great Pyramid is not to be found in the Auroville Matrimandir. The powers-that-be are careful to misuse and desecrate only to the extent that the reader or viewer cannot detect the deception by comparison with what stands on the ground, where there is no ascending 15-step stairway. The above diagram would make the truth obvious. Instead, another diagram has been carried on the website, also from The New Way (Vol. 2, p.458), but again without acknowledgment. It describes a 110cm band at the intersection of Sri Aurobindo’s two triangles. The point of that diagram is to highlight a ‘sensitive’ area for the individual seated in the chamber. But this too is false because no such band of 110cm exists since Sri Aurobindo’s symbol does not ‘exist’ in the Shalagrama due to the changed measurements and the lack of the necessary precision.
Why have Mona Doctor and the Auroville Governing Board done this? Obviously correct references could not be provided because these two chapters of The New Way, 11 and 12 of Volume 2, expose the truth: that the original plan does not figure in the Auroville Matrimandir; hence, neither do the relationships of Mona Doctor’s thesis hold. Indeed, these were the very diagrams used in the book to provide the definitive proof of what was lost.
Even the Golden Section Mona Doctor makes so much of in the website article is not a new discovery regarding the Great Pyramid. It follows that if the proportions of the Pyramid and Sri Aurobindo’s symbol triangles are the same, that Golden Section pertains to both. The question to ask is, where is Sri Aurobindo’s symbol in the Auroville Matrimandir? More importantly, what relevance does the Golden Section have to the Mother’s Vision? To be frank, not much at all; and certainly nothing that can compare to the new revelations which are indeed of the utmost relevance. All are free to have their own experience and follow their own preferences, but why focus on the past when the present in the Mother’s Vision is of such greater beauty and importance for us today?
Lacking the yogic capacity to make these discoveries in the Mother’s Vision, for the past 14 years, Mona Doctor and her ilk have been left free to pass them on as their own, to hold themselves up as ‘authorities’ in sacred architecture, and to make devotees and disciples of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo believe that what has been built in Auroville conforms to this body of higher knowledge, the most sacred treasure of geometry the world has known to date. In the same way that the Mother’s Vision itself was treated during the infamous 18-day fruitless struggle, so too has the Knowledge content of her Vision, as preserved in these diagrams, been similarly desecrated.

The point is, why bother? If Auroville had already made its choice to throw out ‘mathematics’ and ‘astrology’ in 1974, why go to these lengths, why steal from the very person whose work in that field they themselves have trashed time and again, and continue to do so? It is a tactic of the Lord of Falsehood, whose reign continues throughout the world, to disfigure the true thing for unsuspecting seekers. Added to this is the question of donations. It is known that these arts are central to Indian culture. An unsuspecting public will surely be more apt to donate if it is led to believe that the sacred is alive and well in the Auroville Matrimandir. But with these Chronicles the deception is brought to an end.

 

What was lost
The first point to note is that the Mother redesigned Sri Aurobindo’s symbol in May of 1964. Without this no correspondences with the Pyramid – and much more – would have been possible. This was not arbitrary and whimsical, contrary to what Paulette of Auroville has suggested to MAC (letter dated 23.2.2003). The change was in utter and perfect synchronicity with Sri Aurobindo’s supramental process at that very time.
In its complete form according to the official design, which includes details of the inner square, the deepest secrets of the Supramental Manifestation are contained. Above all, there is the formula for Supermind’s organisation for Earth use. And these great mysteries form the core of the knowledge the Mother captured in her plan of the inner chamber. Not fanciful, whimsical, and purposeless, as Auroville would have us believe. Rather, we see the Mother as the architect of the Transcendent’s Will, impeccable in her transposition of that Will into material creation, the field of the number 9, the Transcendent’s own number in the new supramental Order.
We know that the Mother ‘did not see the outside’ and that this was to be the contribution of the collectivity, as explained in Chronicle 5. Ironically, it is that very contribution that exposes the shadow covering the Auroville Matrimandir. For Sri Aurobindo’s symbol inserted in the Shalagrama, as in our diagram, reveals how it must serve as the ‘support’ for the Chamber, just as Sri Aurobindo did in his own lifetime for his collaborator, the Mother.
But while his support is essential for the Chamber, it must be noted that without the inner chamber of the Mother’s Divine Measure, no symbol of Sri Aurobindo arises in the Shalagrama – as if to prove via sacred geometry, ‘Without him, I exist not, without me, he is unmanifest.’ Only the Supermind could ‘organise’ a display of sacred geometry and architecture that would so elegantly and exquisitely give FORM to the Mother’s words.
When the Chamber is superimposed on the Shalagrama, the same 24m floor diameter ending at the walls is seen to rest exactly on the base of Sri Aurobindo’s ascending triangle. The area is encircled in the diagram below (B). If the diameter is altered in any way, the room cannot find the required ‘support’ from Sri Aurobindo’s ascending triangle. Therefore, the Mother insisted that ‘the 24 metres end at the walls’. Not a whimsical and purposeless idea. This was an explicit command from the Divine Executor of the Transcendent’s Will. Similarly, the pillars enclose the square of his symbol and mark off the triangles’ sides (ascending sides and descending base) at the precise location specified by the Mother. This area is encircled in the diagram, below (A). Again, not whimsical and approximate but exact as only the Supramental Shakti can be.

It is the crucial point where pillars, square, sides and base join. The required precision then knits together the entire structure by these occult demarcations of the chamber’s inner space.
In this manner, with a room diameter of exactly 24m, the chamber is supported by Sri Aurobindo’s symbol at the base and sides; while the chamber’s inner circle defines the measurements of the Shalagrama. The point is, without the divine measure which the Mother’s Vision provides, with its remarkable new precision, none of this is possible. Again we must refer to Chronicle 5, page 4, and the discussion on Vedic tradition. The proportions for the idols of Hindu temples are sacrosanct because they are taken from the cosmic harmonies and only when executed faithfully can that particular cosmic energy occupy the form.

 From The New Way, Vol.2, p. 453,
Aeon Books, 1981

This is exactly the position regarding the Mother’s Vision: only when her divine Measure is respected do we find that Sri Aurobindo’s symbol and its power are occultly contained in the Shalagrama, Mona Doctor notwithstanding. We may be told that it is so, we may believe that it is so; but only the precision the Mother demanded can make it so. For Sri Aurobindo’s symbol to MANIFEST in the outer shape, certain points in the temple’s inner space have to be demarcated; and these depend entirely on the chamber’s 24m diameter. 

If instead we have 23m, everything ‘falls apart’, since the circle of pillars is also imperfectly rendered and does not demarcate the innermost square of the Avatar’s sacred lotus; nor does it intercept the sides and base of the triangles.

These are occult relationships, subtle forms that exist in the eternal plane of the Truth-Consciousness. To manifest here, to infuse material creation with their power and light – and none will dispute that this is the heart and soul of Sri Aurobindo’s mission – we must respect the laws that make this possible, that allow for the Bridge to come into being between subtle and material. There is no approximation possible; either the 24m diameter exists, or it does not. Since we know that the Auroville Matrimandir chamber does NOT have a diameter of 24m, we also know that no matter how perfect the Shalagrama outer shape may be, and no matter how carefully it has been designed on the basis of the relevant geometry, Sri Aurobindo’s symbol cannot manifest in that form, with all that this implies. 

The Mother’s Vision provides future generations with the history of the Supramental Manifestation. We will go deeper into these revelations in these Chronicles since for the first time in many thousands of years sacred architecture has been infused with the light of Mahasaraswati to a degree never before witnessed, not even in the best of Hindu temples. The signal that the time had come for this marvellous happening was the Supramental Manifestation of 29 February 1956. The Mother then entered a ‘new mode’, as it were. A review of her experiences and activities from that time onward reveal what this new role has been.
Through this special sacred architecture, based on the Mother’s Vision and her original plan, we SEE Sri Aurobindo in his transcendent form as the upholding and supporting power of the temple. In Savitri it would be Ashwapathy. We know that it is transcendence because it is not PHYSICALLY but SUBTLY present in the structure, yet all embracing, all encompassing, - and indispensable. Transcendent yes, but not oblivious or disregardful of the demanding laws of material creation where He is made manifest. And this very fact confirms the knowledge of the Supramental Manifestation that the Mother captured in her plan, in conjunction with her new role and the experiences she was having after 1956. Without this understanding we cannot appreciate the manner in which Sri Aurobindo serves to INTEGRATE inner and outer; how it is through him that this is achieved as a fundamental part of the Supramental Manifestation.
The next Chronicle will carry the reader deeper into this great Mystery, that of Transcendence and Immanence, - or, in the language of the epic, Ashwapathy and Satyavan.
 

Matrimandir Action Committee
9 April 2003

[Link to Part VII]